Australia is often referred to as “the lucky country”.
The lucky country: bridging the financial inclusion gap By Marielle Yeoh, Chief Marketing, Corporate Affairs & Financial Institutions Officer, PEXA
It’s difficult to dispute that we are very lucky. We’re a developed economy with significant welfare mechanisms, strong financial infrastructure, and low unemployment. We are pretty fortunate, but I often wonder if our “luck” is fairly distributed? In Australia, over 116,000 people experience homelessness every night. A risk we face is the further widening of the gap between those who can and cannot access those systems that promote financial stability. If we want to be truly “lucky”, we need to do more to encourage financial inclusion. And the responsibility for this needs to be distributed across the public and private sectors and our education system. The challenges faced by Australians Having worked in banking for 20 years, I have seen the strength of Australia’s banking infrastructure – and the regulatory regime that underpins it, but still, we are seeing growing inequality in our society. Our property market is a prime example – it’s great if you’re in. It’s daunting if you’re not. Access to finance is paramount to putting a roof over your head, let alone a foot in the door. Unsurprisingly, the PEXA Property and Mortgage Insights Report found that 77.5% of residential property transactions along Australia’s east coast were funded by a loan in FY21. And that foot in the door is a real challenge.
10
